This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. There is a clear connection between the packaged conformation of DNA inside viral capsid and the end goal of the viral packaging, the ability for the virus to eject its genome from the capsid into the host cell. Is there a common packaged genome structure for all dsDNA viruses? A number of experimental and theoretical studies have addressed the DNA conformation within the capsid interior. However, today there is no unambiguous experimental evidence of the genome structure in viruses.